


too far gone

by donnatroy



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman: Arkham (Video Games), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Reunions, not exactly a happy ending whoops, takes place during arkham knight genesis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-13
Packaged: 2018-12-15 00:12:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11794392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/donnatroy/pseuds/donnatroy
Summary: You spot a familiar face in the crowd but it can't possibly be him.





	too far gone

**Author's Note:**

> requested by anonymous on my tumblr @pamelaiesly  
> things you said when no one else was around

You spot him easily in the crowd, a red hood and a dark baseball cap just barely covering his face. For a moment, you think you’re hallucinating it. There can’t be any other explanation. You went to his funeral, you saw him being lowered into the ground. There hadn’t been a body though, not one you’d been allowed to see. And maybe it’s just the grief you still suffer from, having your best friend taken from the world too soon, that makes you see his face.

He doesn’t see you and if he did, he didn’t react at all. So maybe it is a hallucination or some man that just looks like Jason.

It’s hope that makes you follow him, not reason or logic.

You’re sure that he knows you’re following him. He takes quick glances, calculated and looked to be almost casual, timed perfectly with the noises of traffic. He locks eyes with you and the coldness that greets you is almost enough to get you to turn around and run in the other direction.

It’s a mistake to keep following him, but you need to know.

You hesitate when he turns down an alley way that leads no where. There’s no sign of him at all as you look around.

There’s a force and the tight grip of a hand against your throat as you’re pressed against the side of a building. You slap at the wrist, eventually going to claw at it and kick at the man’s shins.

“Why are you following me?”

Half of his face is still hidden away beneath the shadows of his hat but you would know that voice from anywhere.

“Jason… It’s me,” you choke out, nails digging into the skin of his hand and wrist.

You’d like to think you saw something click in his eyes, but it might just have been the fact that you were running out of oxygen. You wheeze when the hand drops you, your feet hitting the ground with a sickening crunch, which you realize came from the bones of a dead bird one of the alley cats had eaten.

You’re bent over, a hand on your knee and the other on your throat, trying to even your breathing, when you hear your name being called.

In another life, he would have been quick to comfort you, quick to apologize, place a hand on your back or even cradle you face in his hands, but he’s too far from that life, too long gone. All he can do is stand there and take in your form.

You catch your breath and straighten out, despite the unbalance you feel in your legs, that you might fall over at any second. When you look at him, he looks almost ashamed of himself. You just push away the hood and baseball cap, wanting to see him fully.

Time has treated you both differently, you discover.

He’s nothing like the boy that you’d been friends with. All the roundness in his face is gone, leaving nothing but sharp angles. And there’s a scar, the letter J, impressed into his skin.

“Jason, what happened to you?” 

He only grabs the cap out of your hand and puts it back over his head and yanks the hood over it harshly. He shouldn’t have come here, he should have just kept going down to the subway to Deathstroke.

You couldn’t interfere with his plans. He still had a mission. 

You grab his wrist when he walks away from you and you know fully well that he could shrug you off and just keep going on his way but there it is, that stupid glimmer of hope that he’ll stop.

And he does. 

He turns to you and at first you don’t know what to say. You’ve left so many things unsaid before he died and you don’t know how to say it know. You want to cry. You can’t lose him a second time after only finding out that he’s still alive.

“Come back to me.” 

It’s an enticing offer. You’ve always put yourself on the line for him, always been there to help pick up the pieces. He would like nothing more than that but he’s got his mission. Jason can’t back out of it now, not even for you.

He’s too far gone.


End file.
